Karnataka - Bangalore   

CBI probe sought into denotification of land

Bangalore: Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council V.S. Ugrappa on Friday demanded that the State Government order an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the allegation of corruption in the denotification of huge tracts of land acquired by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) on the outskirts of Bangalore.

He told presspersons here that the KIADB had acquired 20,000 acres, out of which around 4,000 acres were denotified during 2006-08. Although Minister for Information Technology and Biotechnology Katta Subramanya Naidu had denied the allegation, Mr. Ugrappa demanded a statement by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on the issue.

Mr. Ugrappa urged the State Government to come out with a White Paper on the extent of land denotified and the number of sites allotted to entrepreneurs. He alleged that a number of developers who had accompanied the Chief Minister to attend the conference of the Association of the Kannada Kootas of America had benefited from the land allotment.

Referring to Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde’s report on mining, he said it had mentioned illegal mining on land in Sandur taluk of Bellary district bordering Andhra Pradesh, which had been allegedly encroached upon by miners from the neighbouring State. The Lokayukta had also recommended that the area should be jointly surveyed by the Centre and the State Government to determine the border between the two States.

He said this clearly confirmed the Congress’s allegation of illegal mining and asked why Mr. Yeddyurappa was hesitating to react to that portion of the report. Mr. Ugrappa also wanted the Chief Minister to explain why the Lokayukta had issued notices to him, Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar and others on the mining issue and make public the replies they had submitted.

Mr. Ugrappa said the Congress and its senior leaders, including the former Chief Ministers S.M. Krishna and N. Dharam Singh, were ready to face a CBI inquiry. He wondered how the media was publishing pre-poll surveys on the byelections, violating the Supreme Court order. He took exception to some newspapers reporting that the Congress would draw a blank in the byelections.

At a separate press conference, Prakash Rathod, MLC, and Kenche Gowda, general secretary of the KPCC, alleged that the BJP was spending a huge amount of money and supplying liquor in the eight constituencies where byelections were being held as it was desperate to somehow win.

They gave details about the complaints made by Congress workers to the election authorities.

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